Chicago Gallery News relocated to a bright new office at the end of 2012, and since then, we have been packing, unpacking, hanging loads of covers and art, organizing and reorganizing – dealing with all the necessary evils of moving.  With each cover and artwork that went up on our walls, we felt more at home, and we’re happy with our new space.  Recently, our last empty wall was adorned with perhaps our final decorative touch (for now anyway…) when artist Elizabeth Burke-Dain completed her latest installation.
 
When we left our old office space, we unfortunately also had to leave the large blue-threaded installation that Elizabeth installed for us back in 2011.  These unique installations are comprised of a series of plotted shapes, set nails and colored thread that ultimately end up forming meticulous geometric wall weavings.  I enjoyed seeing this piece come to life over the span of three days – from the initial circular markings, to the nail settings (our neighbors did not enjoy that as much), to the final weaving that brought the whole thing together.

"I see these wall weaving installations as existing in the 'design-as-art' realm," says Burke-Dain about her work. "I have a number of different wall treatments using thread and I'm anxious to get started on another project".
 
The new installation stretches nearly fifteen feet across and nearly three feet high.  The bright yellow thread sharply contrasts the grey paint behind it and appears to almost bounce off the wall.  This work, like the older blue piece, is formed from a series of intersecting thread lines that stem from the circular shapes and nail anchors that the thread is wrapped around.  The weaving causes a dense overlapping of thread in some areas, creating the ‘X’ shapes and more saturated fields of color.
 
Elizabeth enjoys curating art exhibitions, creating PR strategies for art organizations and making things. She has a background in the humanities, arts, and art administration, and has been creating installations like these for several years.  CGN’s is the most recent addition to her repertoire, but she’s also installed her work in businesses including an advertising agency office, as well as in several other homes and residences.
 
Elizabeth would love to make many of these installations so solicitations and commissions for custom installations are welcome. These wall weavings are a great addition to business offices, design showrooms, restaurants, salons, boutiques, personal homes, etc.
 
Email Elizabeth with inquiries about a custom installation for your space, and to learn more about her work and see other samples, visit her Facebook page.

Thomas Robertello Gallery recently opened a show this past Friday featuring two artist: ceramicist Sarah Hicks’s show Pop Garden shows concurrently with Hilder Asgeirsdóttir Jóhnsson’s Strata. As both artists are exhibiting together in the gallery’s space, their rather unique works of art find ways to complement each other.

Chicago-based Hicks offers a variety of ceramic sculptures of imagined morphologies rendering her minimalist pop-surreal sensibilities. Hicks’s eccentric pieces are created from reassembled molds of mass produced and found objects. As Hicks wishes to investigate ornamental and highly stylized forms, she uncovers abstract as well as obvious correlations between their origins and knick-knack toys. She creates these hybrid works by a method known as slip trailing, in which she pours ceramic slip into a plaster slab where shapes are then drawn. This gives Hicks the chance to craft a two-dimensional form in a fluid method. She then treats the surfaces with intense colors, patterns, textures and glazing techniques to give the pieces a whimsical yet chic feel. These works demonstrate Hicks’s interest in the connection of the familiar and foreign pushing back on one another.

The Cleveland-based Icelandic artist Hilder Asgeirsdóttir Jóhnsson creates abstract and textile art that removes the detailed, vivid points in her photographs from her journeys to Iceland to simple and abstract hand–woven works. Jóhnsson documents her travel through Iceland, and uses the photographs of this stark landscape as the beginning point of her studio practice. She sorts through photos of trips to her native country, editing and then selecting images that really captivate her. She then distils the images to their most fundamental forms creating almost topographical studies. She then paints the drawings onto two separated silk threads that she weaves together to form a single woven piece. The abstract forms she creates are hard to recognize as the original Icelandic landscapes, but there is still a glimpse into this natural place and memory with which Jóhnsson first started.

This show seems to reveal a connection between Hicks and Jóhnsson though they are two very different artists. Both call for their original subjects to be minimized to the point of unrecognized form. In this form is where the viewer may then begin to understand the artists’ goal in their work.

Visit the exhibition to discover the connection between the two unique artists. The show runs through April 6.

Thomas Robertello Gallery

27 N. Morgan St.

Chicago, IL 60607

812-345-1886

www.thomasrobertello.com

Hicks

Johnsson

The Zhou B Art Center opens its doors for viewers to experience their latest show of poetry and art this Friday, February 15, coinciding with this month’s 3^rd Friday openings. Sergio Gomez collaborated with Poets and Artists Magazine’s Didi Menendez to curate the exhibition, From Motion to Stillness, bringing together over 40 artists and poets. The show explores representations of stillness, quietness, reflection, meditation, inner-peace, solitude and calmness. From Motion to Stillness calls the viewer and reader to step away from the fast-paced and constantly changing world to pause and experience the stillness brought about by these artworks and poems.

Enjoy a night of peace and reflection this Friday at the opening reception from 7-10pm. Visitors can also visit the open studios of all the in-residence artists, interact with many of the artists and mingle with other collectors and aficionados. After viewing some art and the open studios (including 4Art Inc. Gallery and Yale Factor Gallery), visitors can relax in the Zhou B Café and Art Lounge and enjoy other entertainment throughout the building.

Zhou B Art Center

1029 W. 35th Street

Chicago, IL 60609

773.523.0200

www.zhoubartcenter.com

Last week I had the chance to visit Paul Rinaldi's latest exhibit at Perimeter Gallery. Though tricky to find, because the exhibit is in the basement of the gallery, I am so glad the gallery directed me down the stairs to this intriguing show. Rinaldi's works at Perimeter are paintings that call for contemplation and nostalgia the moment you enter the room. The works are painted on various sized blocks of wood. The paint used is not oil or watercolor, but Rinaldi's own mixture of raw pigments, beeswax and small portions of other materials to make a thick but flexible waxy substance. Rinaldi controls the pigment in order to make the wax more opaque or more translucent, and in this he creates ethereal works, which take a hold of time and create a sacred space on the walls where they are hung. By painting certain sides of the blocks with bright colors, the blocks cast a glow on the white walls causing the blocks to hover in front of a world of thoughts and memories.

This exhibit is showing until February 23, so there is time to stop by this gallery and experience Rinaldi's work for yourself. You can see if you experience the same sense of contemplation and nostalgia as I did when I went to visit. Below, are some pictures of Rinaldi's work.

Perimeter Gallery

210 W. Superior St.

Chicago, IL 60654

(312) 266-7984

www.paulrinaldi.net

www.perimetergallery.com

This past weekend I had a chance to check out Andrew Rafacz Gallery’s current group show Lake Effect/ Nor’easter: Part I in the West Loop. An exhibition of two parts collaboration with LAMONTAGNE, a gallery located in Boston. Each gallery will feature works represented by the other. Part II will take place at LAMONTAGNE opening in Boston on December 15. Featured artists in Part I include: Tory Fair, Jeff Perrott, Daniela Rivera and Joe Wardwell.
 
The aim of the show is to give Chicago a unique glimpse of the vitality of the work created by artists working and living in the Bay State.
 
I enjoy the idea of a two part collaborative show in different cities, functioning as a sort of artist swap, giving the other city a friendly glimpse of different work. The works themselves were lighthearted. Tory Fair’s cast resin sculptures Sculpture From Above and Pink Crate Sculpture struck me as innovative and a little strange, in an unexpected way. Fair’s palette utilizes a soft pink - a color I’m not typically drawn to - in a satisfying manner along with bright yellow and metallic silver. The way the sculptures are positioned casually on the hardwood floor instead of formally on a pedestal, adds to their contemporary air. These sculptures have a presence of being honest, and give off the idea of hope that art can connect to the viewer without being too serious.
 
Daniela Rivera’s oil paintings are arranged with some hung on the wall in a grid, and others trailing off into two stacks onto the floor. All twelve canvases are painted varying shades of green, reminiscent of summertime grass. Rivera’s paintings are easy to relate to, giving an intriguing mix of nostalgia and that refreshing, forbidden feeling of not wearing sandals in the summer while sipping on homemade lemonade.
 
Fair’s sculptures and Rivera’s paintings stood out to me in the group show. Jeff Perrott’s abstract large paintings and Joe Wardwell’s graphic paintings were both interesting, unfortunately I didn’t relate to them as much as I would have liked. Overall, the show was refreshing, contemporary, and the works were playful.
 
Be sure to check out the exhibition for yourself - the show runs until Saturday, December 22. Andrew Rafacz Gallery is located at 835 W. Washington Blvd, Chicago.

Tory Fair, Sculpture From Above, cast resin, 18” x 14” x 12”, 2012 and Tory Fair, Pink Crated Sculpture, cast aluminum and resin, 15” x 15” x 14”, photographer: Erin McGuire

Daniela Rivera, Growth, oil on canvas on panel, 24” x 24” x 2 ½ ”, 2011, photographer: Erin McGuire

Daniela Rivera, Growth, oil on canvas on panel, 24” x 24” x 2 ½ ”, 2011, photographer: Erin McGuire